Wireless mobile stations are coming into popular use in modem society. Originally quite expensive, both to acquire and to operate, they were often used only where no wireline telephone was readily available. As the supporting technology improved, however, they became both more affordable and more prevalent. Now they are a staple of communication for both personal and business use. Mobile-station users, sometimes referred to as subscribers, often resort to using them while traveling, and can be seen placing telephone calls on mobile stations where once they would be lined up at pay phones for the same purpose. Calls can even be made while riding on a bus, in a car, or walking from one place to another. Many subscribers even plan for making certain calls while out of the office or on the road. For better or for worse, a great deal of business can in this way be transacted during what used to be referred to as ‘down time’.
Mobile telephones are, generally speaking, portable radios having both a transmitter and a receiver. Radio communication uses electromagnetic radio waves to send information from one station to another. For voice communications, a microphone on the telephone picks up the user's voice so that it can be converted into radio waves and transmitted. These radio waves start in a standard form, but are then modulated, or changed in a way that a receiver can analyze them and convert the information thus carried into recognizable sounds.
In the case of a cellular-telephone type mobile station, the receiver is typically a nearby base station. The base station has an antenna and a transceiver for transmitting and receiving radio signals, and is connected to a base station controller that controls its operation. The base station controller is in turn connected to a communication network infrastructure, which includes interconnected switching equipment that routes calls from one point in the network to another. The various network nodes may be connected for example by wire, optical fiber, infrared or microwave transmission, or any combination of media. These interconnected base stations can therefore be accessed by network subscribers over a wide geographic area, often called the coverage area.
Calls from one network mobile station to another can be terminated using only network equipment, assuming they are both within the network coverage area. Calls to or from subscribers located out of the coverage area may be made through another network if it is both available and compatible. Separate communication networks connect to each other through common nodes that are often referred to as gateways. Not all networks are mutually connected of course, so a call may have to be routed through a number of them before its termination at the called station. In this way, however, a mobile station may be used to communicate with almost any other generally-accessible communication station.
At this point, it is noted that mobile stations are sometimes referred to as radio telephones, cellular (or cell) phones, and mobile phones. As these terms are often used interchangeably, they will be treated as equivalent herein. They are, however, a sub-group of a larger family of devices that also includes, for example, certain portable computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) that are also capable of wireless communication. This family of devices will for convenience be referred to as “mobile stations” (regardless of whether a particular device is actually moved about in normal operation).
FIG. 1 is an illustration of a typical mobile station, in this case a mobile telephone 100. Mobile phone 100 has internal circuitry (not shown) housed in an enclosure 101. Antenna 126 extends outward from the top of enclosure 101, and battery 124 is attached to the back. Several openings are formed in enclosure 101, including a plurality of small openings 142 that serve as a port for the speaker (not shown), which is mounted beneath them. At the opposite end, microphone port 144 likewise permits entry of sound directed at the actual microphone (also not shown) mounted inside. The power port 146 is for plugging in an external power adaptor and headphone port 148 is for connecting an external headset and perhaps a microphone for hands-free operation.
The keypad 110 is a user interface including a plurality of openings, through which protrude keys such as alphanumeric keys 111, call control keys 112 and 113, scroll key 114 and function keys 115 and 116. The function of the function and scroll keys are variable and determined by the application state that the mobile phone is in, which is translated into a word or icon displayed next to the key on display 134. A is volume control 117 is used to control speaker volume, and power switch 119 is used to turn the phone 100 on and off.
Display 134 is typically a liquid-crystal display (LCD) device. The LCD itself is protected by a plastic window pane 132, which is mounted to cover the display and protrude into window 130, an opening formed in front of enclosure 101. As illustrated in FIG. 1, display 134 presents to the user such information as current softkey functions, telephone numbers, signal strength, and other information useful to the operation being performed. In fact, the larger displays now available on mobile stations (of which display 134 is a relatively modest example) permit the display no only of copious telephone-related information, but may also accommodate Web pages and word-processing documents.
Traditionally, telephone calls are simply the transmission of voice information from one phone to another. Other information, however, can now be transmitted and received by mobile stations as well; information such as text messages, email messages, faxes, and graphic images. Non-voice information is for convenience often simply referred to as ‘data’. (The term ‘information’ or ‘traffic’ generally includes both voice and data.) Data transmission is accomplished in a fashion similar to that for voice, although the requirements for its accuracy and timeliness are somewhat different.
This ability to transmit different types of information for different purposes has itself contributed to the rapidly increasing use of mobile stations in business. In fact, they are many times used from homes or offices where other, more traditional instruments for communication are readily available. In part, of course, this practice may take advantage of the mobile station's mobility; a conversation that begins when the subscriber is at home may continue on the way to work and finish at the office. There is no interruption involved in going from one place to another. As another example an Internet-based research project begun in the office may continue as the subscriber waits in front of an office building for a ride to lunch.
One disadvantage that may be encountered in this mobile lifestyle, however, may lie in trying to keep track of the work that has been done. In the traditional office, a worker toiled from nine to five at a desk, often under the watchful eye of a supervisor. The supervisor made sure the worker was there and that the work was done. Even were the worker is not under direct supervision, the need for some accountability may still exist. Many professions, for example, bill customers according to the amount of time spent working on a given project. Others may simply want to determine what their most profitable projects are, determined as a function of how much they are being paid compared with the actual time spent on a project. Or a person may simply keep track of how much time is spent on given projects as a productivity tool, to make sure they are spending most of their time on important tasks, and less on administration. While keeping track of working time is difficult enough when sitting at a desk, it may be nearly impossible when the work is done in transit from one location to another.
Various solutions are available, including simply writing down accomplishments made en route on a piece of paper or in a notebook brought along for the purpose. The same notation could be made on a PDA or digital pager that allows the typing or writing of notes that can be stored on the device itself or sent by email to an address from which it can be later retrieved. A PDA might even be equipped with a timer that could be used in lieu of manually recording start and stop times for later calculation of elapsed time. All of these solutions have a common disadvantage, however, that being the manner in which they require active user initiation. The subscriber that is already engaged in a work-related task may well also be busy boarding a bus, trying to catch an airplane, or watching for traffic. Having to both remember to make notes, and actually going to the trouble of doing it, may simply result in the omission of any productivity tracking. The user may decide instead to try and remember what has been accomplished and to record it later, but they forget when the time comes to do so.
Needed, therefore, is a way to reliably track the many tasks performed while in transit so that the user's memory does not have to be unduly taxed. The present invention provides just such a solution.